Murray Garrett and his Winter Championship Final winner Overrated.Owner-trainer Murray Garrett’s career-best season culminated in an unprecedented payday in the $60,000 ITM/Gib Progressive Winter Championship Final at Ruakaka last weekend.
Garrett won Saturday’s 1600-metre race with his talented homebred Overrated, who stalked the front-running Delorean up to the home turn before gradually overhauling that rival and snatching victory by a short neck.
It was the second win of a nine-start career for the Wrote gelding, who previously scored a maiden victory at Te Rapa in May. He has now earned $51,965 in stakes for Garrett, who shares ownership with his wife Julie.
“Most of our horses don’t really get that much beyond maiden races, so to win a $60,000 race like that is definitely a highlight for a small stable like ours,” Garrett told RaceForm this week. “The fact that we bred and own the horse ourselves makes it even better.”
Overrated’s two wins this season are part of a career-best tally of five for Garrett, who has also had success with Impaired Vision at Tauranga on June 22, Chilli Con Khan at Pukekohe on June 19, and Cascatella at Rotorua on December 28.
“It’s by far the most wins we’ve had in a season, hell yeah,” said Garrett, who with his wife trains a team of up to 11 at Pukekohe Park and also farms in North Waikato.
“We’re only a small-time operation, and a lot of the horses we race are ones that we either breed ourselves or buy cheaply.”
In a way, Overrated fits both of those criteria. The Garretts bred him out of their Entrepreneur mare Vision, who they bought for $2400 in a Gavelhouse auction in 2018.
Vision won four races between 1400 and 2100 metres, and she was stakes-placed in the Gr. 3 Thompson Handicap and Desert Gold Stakes. She is a daughter of the Palatable mare Eye Full, whose 11 wins included the Gr. 3 Hawke’s Bay Cup. She was also runner-up in a New Zealand Cup, while her seven winning progeny included the Gr. 1 New Zealand Stakes and Gr. 2 Doomben Roses winner Gaze.
Garrett believes there could be more to come from Overrated once he has more maturity and experience under his belt.
“He’s a horse with a bit of upside,” he said. “He’s always shown a fair turn of foot, and from his breeding you’d think he might get up over a bit further in the future. Both his dam and his granddam won over ground.”
The four-year-old Impaired Vision is a half-brother to Overrated and was also bred by the Garretts, while their other recent winners – Chilli Con Khan and Cascatella – were bought on Gavelhouse for $300 and $2900 respectively.
“We paid only $300 for Chilli Con Khan, and she goes alright,” Garrett said. “She was unplaced in the Stayers’ Final on Saturday, but she just got tripped up by the way that race was run. She can have a week to 10 days off now and then we’ll start getting her ready to go again.”
Gavelhouse was also the source of another of the Garretts’ biggest successes, the Niagara mare No Secret. They bought her for $800 in 2019 and sold a majority share to clients of Mike Moroney after back-to-back wins at Te Aroha and Te Rapa. She went on to be a two-time winner at Moonee Valley, lifting her career earnings past $170,000.
“The only other season that really compares to this one is when we had No Secret a couple of years ago,” Garrett said. “We didn’t pay much for her, and she had those two good wins before we sold her to Australia.
“We went through a bit of a rebuilding stage after that, and now we’ve got to the point of having a few that are ready to race and be competitive again. It’s been a pretty good run, and hopefully it can keep going.”
The Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast in late May marked a homecoming for No Secret, who was bought back by Julie Garrett for A$40,000. Now a six-year-old, No Secret’s last race was a fifth placing at Moonee Valley last November.
Meanwhile, one of the most promising members of the Garrett stable is one that is yet to win a race. Two-year-old Beau Luca has finished second in both of his starts, beginning with a long-head defeat to Ortega at Pukekohe on June 19.
The son of Embellish lined up for his second race last Saturday at Ruakaka, where he was runner-up behind Vegas Queen in the ITM/Gib 2YO.
“We were really pleased with him as well,” Garrett said. “His first run was on a very wet track, and I had some doubts going into Saturday about how he’d go on that much drier surface at Ruakaka.
“But Michael McNab was rapt with him and said he handled the track well, so that was very encouraging. We’ll just play it by ear with him, but hopefully we’ll have a bit to look forward to.”
